Time Machine and Iomega 500 GB external disk

I was thinking of upgrading to Leopard and getting the Iomega 500 GB external disk Apple is offering. I read somewhere that you cannot boot from the Iomega external drive if you need to. Is this true? If it is true, is this an issue of the Iomega drive? Are there drives that will let you boot from backup created by Time Machine if your internal hard drive goes bad? The system I have is a MacBook.

Hi,
A Time Machine backup is not of itself bootable. You could create a bootable system on that drive and then use it as a Time Machine target... that would work but it wouldn't necessarily be "optimal."
Anyway, if it's a Firewire drive I'd be pretty certain it would be bootable if you installed the OS on it... it's easy enough to try.

Similar Messages

I want to set up the Time Machine and I would love to use the Time Capsule but since I already have a wireless router I need suggestions on what other external disks Apple could recommend to use with the Time Machine and how to configure that disk

I want to set up the Time Machine and I would love to use the Time
Capsule but since I already have a wireless router I need suggestions on
what other
external disks Apple could recommend to use with the Time Machine and
how to configure that disk.
A complication that I need to resolve is the fact that I am using Vmware
Fusion to be able to use Windows on my Mac. Now it seems that Time
Machine is not backing up my files
on that virtual Windows without additional configuration and my question
is whether you can advise me here or whether this is only a matter for
the Fusion virtual machine.

If you want to use Time Capsule you can.. you simply bridge it and plug it into the existing router.. wireless can be either turned off or used to reinforce the existing wireless.. eg use 5ghz in the TC which is much faster than your 2.4ghz.
You can also use a NAS.. many brands available but the top brands are synology, qnap and netgear readynas series. These will all do Time Machine backups although how well always depends on Apple sticking to a standard. There are cheaper ones.. I bought a single disk zyxel which was rebadged and sold through my local supermarket. It actually works very well for TM at least on Snow Leopard. Major changes were made in Lion and again ML so do not instantly think it will work on later versions. I haven't tried it yet with those versions.
Any external drive can be plugged into the mac. Use the one with the fastest connection or cheapest price according to your budget. USB2 drives are cheap and plentiful. But no where near as fast as USB3 or FW800. So just pick whichever suits the ports on your Mac. Interesting Apple finally moved to USB3 on their latest computers.
TM should exclude the VM partition file.. it is useless backing it up from Mac OS side.. and will slow TM as it needs to backup that partition everyday for no purpose.. TM cannot see the files inside it to backup just the changes.
You need to backup windows from windows. Use MSbackup to external drive.. if you have pro or ultimate versions you can backup to network drive. But MSbackup is a dog.. at least until the latest version it cannot restore the partition without first loading windows. There are about a zillion backup software versions for windows.. look up reviews and buy one which works for you. I use a free one Macrium Reflect which does full disk backups and is easy to restore.. to do incremental backups though you have to pay for it.

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the b.u. stops

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the backup stops. The system preferences are set to "Never" for Computer sleep and Display sleep. The computer does not ordinarily log off automatically, but it has done this twice since I started the Time Machine backup.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

HT201250 My 10.7.3 Time Machine won't work with external disks. Worked fine with Snow Leopard, and even Lion 10.7.1

My 10.7.3 Time Machine won't work with external disks. Worked fine with Snow Leopard, and even Lion 10.7.1
I have tried everything, even buy new external disk from different manufacture.
If I cant get a fix soon, I am downgrading back to SnowL.

Still no luck. I tried all the tricks, reconfiguring TM (remove selected disk option, and re-setting it, and trying different disks). Tried new combo updater, and the newer TM update after that. Tired two different disks too (one is my older firewire WD MyBook 1TB, and my brand new 3tb Seagate GoFlex USB... either one plugged into back of computer - no intermediary devices). I did get the TM buddy wiget and it produced the following log, from the last attempt, where I setup lots of exclusions so that backup quantity was small (under 10gb). Still it failed to complete. Here is that log, for what it is worth:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/TM-Disk/Backups.backupdb
9.56 GB required (including padding), 911.15 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Copied 0 files (0 bytes) from volume Mac HD.
Backup canceled.
To prove a point, I will take these disks are run them on my other Tiger and Snow Leopard laptops to prove TM works fine on those with these disks. But I fear the only options are to either have my tech re-install LION... or just have him reinstall SL instead. Im at wits end.

Time Machine and IOMega StoreCenter

have a 500G boot drive. I'm trying to use Time Machine to backup to an external drive. The drive is an IOMega 1T StoreCenter connected to the Mac via Firewire.
The OS is OSX Server 10.5.6.
I erase the drive and start activate Time Machine. It backups exactly once. Then the next time it ought to be backing up. A window with the preparing message comes up. With the barber pole like think turning.
I tried all of the troubleshooting hints for Timne Machine and nothing works. The only thing that works or me is after the OSX boots to powerdoen and then power up the external drive. Then it starts working. But otherwise the screen just says "preparing" It'll go on like this for days.
I also tried the Time Machine buddy. But time machine won't talk to it either.
Is it me or does anyone else feel that Leopard is more "brittle" then previous versions?
Made sure that the hardware does not go into powersaver mode.
Took the disk out of spotlight.
Made sure that it's using GUID Partition Table.
It's also using the extended journaling filesystem.
This used to all work untill I took out the original 250G drive and replaced it with a 500G one.
I don't know what else to try? But the moving light on the drive is very nice eye candy. Shame I can't backup to it.

Henry Cline1 wrote:
I purchased and installed a Iomega 2TB Home Network Drive today primarily for usage with OS X and Time Machine.
Time Machine does not back up to most network drives. Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
You may find some hardware or "hacks" that might make other things work, in some cases, to a degree. But use them at your own risk.
First, since this is *unsupported by Apple,* there's nowhere to go when there's trouble.
Second, you're risking a future update preventing it from working, and perhaps rendering your backups useless.
I tried to create a Time Machine backups from two different computers and both returned the error
The backup disk image "/volumes/backups-2/"mymacname.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 45)
Try the renaming suggestions in #C9 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Leopard, Vista, Time Machine, and Shared on a single disk

A friend of mine recently bought one of the new Mac Pros and I'm helping him set it up.
Here's what I want to do and I've been having considerable trouble getting this to work.
My friend got a single terabyte hard drive and I want to partition it into four partitions- one for Leopard, one for Vista, one for Time Machine, and one for Sharing files (FAT 32).
I found out the long way that Boot Camp will not let you install Vista if you already have several partitions on your hard drive.
Here's what I have done so far.
1. Erased the drive and installed a fresh installation of Leopard
2. Run Boot Camp to install Vista (this worked fine and I was able to boot into both operating systems)
3. Booted from OS X install disk and used disk utility to create two new partitions from the HSF formated Leopard drive
My problem is that creating these new partitions deactivated the Vista Partition. The windows partition still shows up in Disk Utility as it did before but when I hold down option to try booting into Windows, Vista no longer shows up. The Mac Works fine as does the Time Machine and Shared partitions.
Could someone please help me to get Vista working again. I hope I won't have to reinstall everything to make this work but if that's the only way, could someone at least tell me how to accomplish my original goal with the computer setup?

VaatiKaiba wrote:
I'm going to install Windows on my Mac soon (for dev purposes, I love Leopard!), but was just wondering something. When I install Vista, will Time Machine backup the Windows partition of the HD?
No but wait ...
If not, can I backup the Windows partition using a Windows program? Also, can I back them up onto the same disc, or will that confuse Mac OS if it has to look back for a backup?
Even better there is a program that will make an image of your Windows partition from OS-X!
It's called Winclone and the latest version supports both NTFS and FAT32.
Get it here - it's free.
You should not backup a program onto the same HD. When the HD fails, you lose the backup as well as the original.
Backup your Windows partition to your TM drive. It's a perfect match.
http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/
Thanks!

I just set up Time Machine and have a WD external disc attached.

A WD SmartWare folder now resides on my desktop. It contains a question that asks if I want to back up files or set up the drive.
What am I supposed to do? Thanks for your assistance.

burgessiii22 wrote:
Thanks for the answer Linc, but how do I check to make sure the back-up process is working if I don't think I need to restore?
Create a test file with Text Edit (or any other program) and save it to your desktop.
Run Time Machine from the menu bar.
When the Time Machine icon in the menu bar stops spinning, drag your test file to the trash.
Open Time Machine and go back 1 page. You should see your test file on the desktop.

HT201250 Backing up data with Time Machine and iOmega

I haven't backed up my data with an iOmega external hard drive and Time Machine in three months. As soon as I plugged in iOmega, the screen went to the purple outer space background with a box indicating a list of options to be backed up. I clicked "All My Files" rather than the default "Documents" because I have been working extensively on iPhoto and iMovie. That was an hour ago. The screen has not changed. I can feel the hard drive whirring, so something's going on. How long should it take?

The backup frequency can be changed using e.g. TimeMachineScheduler and I think you can set Time Machine to backup external drives. (System Preferences --> Time Machine --> Options)

Using Time Machine to backup data FROM external disk to ANOTHER external

i have my itunes library and my iphoto library on an external WD disk connected to my MacBook Pro. So, i have a lot of nice data on that disk that i want protected... but Time Machine is not playing nice with the external hard drive. It's not listed on the list of items "Not to backup", yet when I go into the Time Machine interface, i can't go more than 1 level deep in Finder when selecting the external disk.
has anyone seen this behavior? it's supposed to work.
thanks!

Did you backup your data from that external disk using some other backup software before?
I am also trying to figure out problems with external HD using time machine to back it up. Am not quite sure yet why it is not working right.

Time Machine and Iomega Home Network Drive (error 45)

I purchased and installed a Iomega 2TB Home Network Drive today primarily for usage with OS X and Time Machine.
I tried to create a Time Machine backups from two different computers and both returned the error
The backup disk image "/volumes/backups-2/"mymacname.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 45)
I would love some guidance and how to over come this issue.
Thanks very much,
Henry Cline

Henry Cline1 wrote:
I purchased and installed a Iomega 2TB Home Network Drive today primarily for usage with OS X and Time Machine.
Time Machine does not back up to most network drives. Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
You may find some hardware or "hacks" that might make other things work, in some cases, to a degree. But use them at your own risk.
First, since this is *unsupported by Apple,* there's nowhere to go when there's trouble.
Second, you're risking a future update preventing it from working, and perhaps rendering your backups useless.
I tried to create a Time Machine backups from two different computers and both returned the error
The backup disk image "/volumes/backups-2/"mymacname.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 45)
Try the renaming suggestions in #C9 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine stops backing up to external disk

Official Mac document:
Issue or symptom
After about 10 GB or more of data is backed up to an external disk, Time Machine may stop backing up. This may happen the first time Time Machine backs up your files.
Products affected
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Time Machine
Solution
Some hard disks ship with a Master Boot Record (MBR) partiton type. You will need to erase the external disk so that it is supported by Time Machine. Important: Erasing a disk deletes all files on it. Make sure that you have or make a copy of important files in another location first.
Use Disk Utility to erase the external hard drive:
Use "Apple Partition Map" partition scheme if Time Machine will be used on a PowerPC-based Mac.
Use "GUID" partition scheme if Time Machine will be used on a Intel-based Mac.
Once the external hard disk is reformatted, select it again in Time Machine preferences and use it for your backups.
This document will be updated as more information becomes available.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306932

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Time Machine and Iomega NAS - The operation couldn't be completed. Error 2

Hi - I sure hope someone is able to help?
I have just purchased an Iomega Storcenter IX2-200 4TB NAS device.
I have tried to use it as a TimeMachine device but when I select the TimeMachine disk from the preferences panel I receive the error 'The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 2.)'
I have not created any users etc, the device is as it came out of the box. The TimeMachine disk automatically appeared in the Finder when I connected the IX2
Is there a 'special' userid/pw I should be using for the TimeMachine? When prompted for those details from the TM preferences I use admin/<password> and receive the above error - any other entry results in a message stating that the userid/password info is incorrect.
I don't want to return it because I see it as a useful device to back up my three Macs.
If anyone is able to help they will be my friend for life!!
Kind regards,
Dave.

The anwser is quite simple. Enter the Storcenter's configuration page en go to "settings", "Back up" and " Time Machine". When you configured the NAS correctly there is a + button roughly in the middle of the page.
Press this button and enter the name of the Mac and the ethernet/mac adress (this is the adress of the network adapter you use to connect to the network, something like aa.11.bb.22.cc.33, can be found on the advanced section of the networkadapter settings). Click "ok", log off and close the window. You can now configure time machine using the administrators name and password.
(sorry if the translation is a bit "foggy", I'm writing this with a Dutch version of the software...)
Jan

Time Machine and Powerbook away from external hard drive

According to Apple's Web site:
+"When your mobile Mac is connected to your backup drive, Time Machine works as you’d expect. When it isn’t connected, Time Machine also works as you’d expect. It keeps track of which files have changed since the last backup and backs them up accordingly."+
except this doesn't seem to be happening for me.
Everything is exactly as I'd expect when I'm in the office connected to my external hard drive - hourly backups during the day. However, if I'm away from my desk for a few hours and then come back to the hard drive and plug it in I'd expect (from the description above) to see the hourly backups appear in time machine for when I had my Macbook switched on. If I'm away for a couple of days I'd expect to see one backup per day.
So, here is my question, if I'm not actually connected to my firewire attached Lacie hard drive is Time Machine doing anything? It would help me if I create a file away from my desk that I have the hourly time machine backups held locally to retrieve if needed. If this is not the way it works, it's not the end of the world for me, I just need to be aware that the latest backup will be when I had the external drive connected and I'm getting nothing while I'm away - and maybe Apple chould clarify their marketing blurb .
David.

You are welcome.
Also keep in mind that while the drive is connected you can initiate a Back Up Now at any time (right click the Time Machine icon in the dock). So if you are about to try something worrisome or complex with your system or your data files, you can trigger a backup, do your task, and know the backup is there to recover from so long as it's still the same day. I.e., you can make the incremental backups happen more frequently than hourly by explicitly requesting them when you want them.
The thing that confuses most people is probably this idea of hourly backups becoming daily and then weekly. They are not merged when that happens. Of all the backups taken in a given day, only one survives. And of the seven of those in a given week, only one survives, even though there is still plenty of room on the drive. And when the drive runs short of room the oldest backups start getting deleted (although you are asked before that happens, just in case you want to start afresh with a new drive). So the backup that survives as the daily backup is a complete snapshot of your file system at that specific point in time, without regard to changes that might have been captured in other hourly backups during the same day.
So Time Machine works best with files that stick around for a while or when you discover a file has been accidentally damaged or deleted relatively soon after that happens.
--Bob

HT201250 i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. do i keep my files in the portable hard disk when I connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will era

i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. Am i keeping my files in the portable hard disk when I will connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will erase all?
I would like to know if after I erase all my data, empy hard drive inside the macbook, the time machine will erase all my files that I have saved in my "WD "My passport" external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine has to erase the external disk in order to make backups. Before setting Time Machine up, copy the files of your external disk to the hard disk of the Mac in order not to lose them, and then, set up Time Machine. The first backup will start automatically.
If you want more information about Time Machine, read the Pondini's site > http://pondini.org

Time Machine and Airport Express

Got Time Machine to work with a Mini and my AEBS after the 7.3.1 upgrade. Did the full initial backup with no problem. However, I then had my Macbook backing up to the same AEBS and USB drive for several hours and the Mini's Time Machine tried and failed to do an incremental backup. Now I get a "disk is read only" error when I tried do perform a Time Machine backup and the error message recommends reformatting the drive. I'm now verifying the disk with Disk Utility.
1. Has anyone been able to have two Macs share an AEBS drive for Time machine without conflicts?
2. I initially set up each Mac on a separate partition on the USB drive. Is that recommended or should they share a partition?

In theory it should work, but I don't think you need to partition the drive as TM should manage each drive's backup separately.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Here are several articles to help troubleshoot Time Machine Problems as well as assist in properly setting up Time Machine.
Mac 101- Using Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Is Time Machine all you need?
Some advice for those using Time Machine
TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X- Time Machine- The Good, the Bad, and the Missing Features
Mac OS X 10.5- Time Machine backups are not visible
OS X 10.5- Time Machine stops backing up to external disk
10.5- Disable the 'use this disk?' Time Machine dialog
Time Machine tips and troubleshooting
Mac OS X 10.5 Help- Restoring files backed up with Time Machine
OS X 10.5- Using Time Machine and troubleshooting Time Machine issues

Time Machine and Iomega 500 GB external disk

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